In application programs developed by software providers and well known in the art, a startup screen, user interface (hereinafter abbreviated as “UI”) window, and other screens have different display formats according to the sales target or end-user (such as a company or individual), even when the program provides the same functions. The display format of screens required for application programs may differ according to the end-user because of the different required functions and degree of user-friendliness in a business office or an individual's home or the different network environment to which the computer is connected, for example. Therefore, the software provider must provide an application program having a display format preset to suit the needs of the end-user. The software provider supplies this type of application program to the user in the form of an installation package (where “package” denotes a combination of programs and files in this specification), including an installer for installing the application program on the computer.
In order to provide this installation package to different users, the software provider has created application programs having screens with different formats according to the end-user, as described above, and has supplied the application programs to different users as separate software packages. Consequently, the software provider must develop, test, and revise a plurality of application programs for a plurality of end-users, despite the application programs having the same functions and differing only in the display format, thereby requiring much effort and expense in creating the software.
However, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-89134 discloses a technique for displaying a desired startup screen by presetting the startup screen according to the user's wishes.